Career Summary: Dr. Shen is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Biomedical Engineering of USC Viterbi School of Engineering. He is an Associate Member of the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center and a Principle Investigator of USC stem cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine (courtesy). He received his Bachelor of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering (2001) and Master of Science in Biophysics (2004) from Tsinghua University of China. He earned his Ph.D. degree in Biomedical Engineering in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Columbia University in 2010. He completed his postdoctoral training in the Center for Engineering in Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, from 2010-2014. He joined the USC faculty in 2015. In addition to the STOP CANCER Award, Dr. Shen received an MGH Fund for Medical Discovery Award in 2012 and the Broad Innovation Award in 2016.

Year STOP CANCER Award was received: 2017 Marni Levine Memorial Research Career Development Award

Research Summary: Dr. Shen’s research addresses a fundamental problem of breast cancer using a new assay that measures the communication between breast cancer cells and surrounding normal stromal cells. Dr. Shen's research has been focused on creating tumor-on-a-chip models to understand how tumor microenvironments influence cancer progression and therapeutic resistance, and explore more effective cancer treatments. This project involves is using microengineered tumor models to understand how tumor-stromal interactions give rise to invasive cancer phenotypes and metastatic diseases.

STOP CANCER is committed to funding the most promising and innovative scientists in their early research of all forms of cancer prevention, treatment, cures and subsequent clinical applications. STOP CANCER works primarily with local National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers and other qualified institutions in the United States to carry out its mission.